A growing number of Teesside pubs, clubs and restaurants are calling last orders on harmful plastic straws - so is it time we got used to just sipping our drinks instead?

Middlesbrough restaurant Fork in the Road says it used to give out 25,000 straws a year and it’s challenging other businesses on Teesside to follow in its footsteps by bringing in a total ban.

The Highland Laddie in Norton has replaced plastic straws with recyclable paper ones this week after its owner, Wetherspoons, banned plastic straws across all its UK pubs.

And Stockton venues Ku Bar, on Prince Regent Street, and the Storytellers pub, on Dovecot Street, are preparing to make the switch from plastic to compostable straws.

Co-owner of Ku, Angela Harper, said the venue is looking at greener alternatives to plastic. Straws will only be made available on request, after staff found most of them end up on the floor at the end of the night.

She said: “Straws are a pet hate of mine, I’d ban them if I could, so we are more than happy that some are starting to do this.

“People do ask for straws, some people don’t like drinking straight out of bottles but they don’t want a glass either.

“We are looking into alternatives, paper straws that are compostable as some biodegradeable ones are just as harmful.”

Businessman and philanthropist Andy Preston, who owns Fork in the Road, said straws are just the first step to reducing plastic use at his not-for-profit restaurant.

He’s called time on straws at the restaurant, which gives prisoners and ex-offenders paid work placements, after the government’s 25-year plan to target plastic use was announced last week.

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He said: “Serving a single drink without a straw might only seem like a drop in the ocean, but when you multiply it by how many straws we use a year, and then multiply that by how many restaurants we have just here in the Tees Valley, we are talking about millions of straws that won’t be polluting our fragile planet in the future.

“Research suggests that one in three cod and haddock caught in British waters contains visible plastic and that the average person who eats seafood consumes 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic each year.

“I am urging other local businesses to join me in taking this first step towards harmful-plastic free trade.”

UK chains Wagamama and Pret A Manger have also both announced they will be cutting down on plastic straws this week.